Defence section

Defence Section

The Defence Section of the Australian Embassy acts as a conduit between the Australian and Vietnamese Defence Organisations, to enhance the military relationship between the two countries. The Section also attends to visiting Australian ships, aircraft and personnel in all areas of Vietnam, and generally acts as an experienced group of in-country facilitators in any Defence-related activity involving both Australia and Vietnam.

Collaboration among the Vietnam People’s Army Military Medical Department, the United States’ Naval Medical Research Center- Asia and the Australian Army Malaria Institute for monitoring of multidrug-resistant malaria in Vietnam.

Malaria is a very serious tropical disease responsible for 214 million cases and 438,000 deaths worldwide in 2015. The current centerpiece of global malaria control is artemisinin-combination therapies (ACTs). However, since 2006, reduced susceptibility to ACTs has emerged and is now present in several Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam in four provinces (Binh Phuoc, Dak Nong, Gia Lai and Quang Nam). To provide updated information on the current geographic distribution of antimalarial drug resistances in Vietnam a tri-military cooperation between the Vietnam People’s Army Military Medicine Department, the US Navy Medical Research Center-Asia and the Australian Army Malaria Institute was established in 2012. Currently, the defence collaboration is conducting clinical studies of antimalarials in Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam to determine whether drug resistance exists.